Thursday Preview: Brimstone Cup Edition

The Chicago Fire and FC Dallas renew their Brimstone Cup rivalry tonight on ESPN2. Interesting fact to know that FC Dallas has yet to lose at Toyota Park since the Bridgeview stadium opened a couple years ago.

A lot is riding on tonight as these two clubs are hoping to gain valuable points. Chicago needs to get back on the winning path after taking a week off from league action to host a couple international friendlies with a couple sister city clubs. The Fire didn’t see any victories in that short tournament. Dallas is hoping to bounce back from what manager Schellas Hyndman called the worst performance of the year when they lost 1-0 at home to the league’s best club, the LA Galaxy.

This matchup should be an interesting one. Even with the rivalry tag on this one don’t expect a lot of pushing and shoving like most big rivalries have. This one gets chippy but never crazy. Its more of a rivalry between the supporter groups of the two sides.

Dallas likes to control things within the midfield and use the possession to their advantage and defensively they haven’t let in a whole lot of goals this season. The issue is however they don’t score a lot of goals either. Getting guys like Jeff Cunningham to score in the run of play hasn’t been easy this season for Hyndman’s bunch. He’ll be going against one of the league’s best defenders tonight in Wilman Conde. His speed will have to be on high gear to get past Conde.

The Fire also do a decent job with the ball in the midfield with guys like Marco Pappa controlling things. They still lack a creative flare in the midfield but Pappa is getting better setting things up for Brian McBride and Collins John.

I think this one stays close and ends in a draw. Dallas does have an advantage in getting results in Chicago and the Fire tend to stink up the place at home but neither have impressed me in the last couple weeks so a draw seems fitting.

Player to watch out for: Logan Pause – He has to be the defensive workhorse in the midfield for the Fire in this one. If he slows down Dax McCarty and David Ferreira then the Fire stand a good shot at getting three points.